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Purpose
This tutorial mainly covers how Oracle BI Publisher is integrated with Oracle
Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (Oracle BI EE) 10.1.3.2, and how this
integration enables you to create highly formatted reports in Oracle BI Publisher by
using Oracle BI Answers and Oracle BI Server metadata.
Time to Complete: Approximately 1 hour
Topics
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Creating a BI Publisher Report Based on BI Server Subject Area and Viewing Data
Creating a BI Publisher Report from the BI Server Subject Area
Creating an RTF Template in MS Word by Logging In to BI Publisher
Publishing the Template to View the Report Data in BI Publisher
Creating a Report with Parameters and List of Values
Summary
Related information
Overview
Oracle BI Interactive Dashboards: Personalized, highly intuitive, guided and fully interactive
access to cockpits of live analyses
Oracle BI Answers: Self-service ad hoc capabilities allowing end users to easily create charts,
pivot tables, reports, and visually appealing dashboards, all of which are fully interactive and
drillable
Oracle BI Delivers: Proactive intelligence solution providing alerts that can reach users via
multiple channels (e-mail, dashboards, and mobile devices), as well as workflow integration
Oracle BI Disconnected Analytics: Full business intelligence functionality for the mobile
professional, enabling fully interactive dashboards and ad hoc analysis while disconnected from
the corporate network
Oracle BI Publisher: High-fidelity report templates that are created and published via common
personal productivity applications delivered directly or through Interactive Dashboards to end
users
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In this tutorial, you start by opening an existing BI Answers request and modify that
to add more fields. You connect to BI Publisher from MS Word and save the BI
Answers request that you created as a BI Publisher report. You will open a simple
RTF file and create a layout for the report with charts and table using the wizards
in MS Word. You will publish this template for the BI Publisher report, and also,
you will publish a BI Publisher report on a BI Dashboard. You will also be guided to
create a BI Publisher report based on from BI Server subject area and view the
data.
Scenario
This OBE uses the sales history metadata repository SH.rpd, based on the Sales
History (SH) sample schema of Oracle Database. To continue with the steps listed
in the topics, you should have installed the required software, and set up the
SH.rpd metadata repository, as mentioned in the topic titled "Prerequisites."
Prerequisites
SH.rpd metadata repository, following the steps listed in the OBE “Creating a
Repository Using the Oracle Business Intelligence Administration Tool”. Also, it
is strongly recommended that you go through the tutorial "Creating Interactive
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Dashboards and Using Oracle Business Intelligence Answers". to understand
the steps involved in creating an Answers request, creating a dashboard page,
and so on.
The rpd and webcats created by these OBEs are available on the BIC2G Linux
image in case you haven’t completed these tutorials for any reason.
You need to ensure the BIC2G server is set to use this metadata
1. Go to http://oracle2go.us.oracle.com/go/process_control/pc.html, select
sh.rpd and sh web catalog and click
4b If using BIC2G pre-installed SH.rpd you can skip this step as the Administrator
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1. Select Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC)
2. Select the tab System DSN and configure the Oracle BI Server
connection “AnalyticsWeb” created when configuring the local client
software. (Server = oracle2go)
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5 The BI Publisher integration with Presentation Services is not set up correctly
for the SH rpd initially. You need to set up this integration from BI Publisher as
follows:
1. Go to http://oracle2go.us.oracle.com:9704/xmlpserver
2. Sign in as admin / admin
3. From the Admin tab, under Integration, select Oracle BI Presentation
Services.
4. Change the Administrator password to “Administrator” (without quotes).
Ensure the other settings are as follows:
• Server Protocol: http
• Server Version: v4
• Server: oracle2go.us.oracle.com
• Port: 9704
• URL Suffix: analytics/saw.dll.
5. Click
6. Go to Admin > Security Configuration
7. Change the Administrator password under Security Model to
“Administrator” (without quotes). Ensure that the Security model remains
driven by the “Oracle BI Server”.
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8. Click
9. Go to the process control page and click Stop All
10. Wait until “Oracle BI Server“ flag is red and the following line is shown in
the log:
Publisher:
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When you install BI Publisher Desktop, it adds the BI Publisher menu in MS
Word.
7. Have downloaded the Category Sales and Profits.rtf template file provided with
Note: All the steps 1-7 listed above in the prerequisites are mandatory. Without
performing this setup, you will not be able to proceed with the steps listed in the
topics below.
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to jdbc:oracle:thin:@oracle2go:1521:ORCL
Note that the report “Advanced Sales Dashboard” in the same folder may
not work due to other RSS data sources to which the Linux server may not
have access without further network configuration.
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Modifying a Pre-Created Request in Oracle BI Answers
In this topic, you will connect to Oracle BI Presentation Services, open a pre-
created BI Answers request, modify it as appropriate, and save it.
Follow the steps listed in each of the subtopics below:
Logging In to Oracle BI Presentation Services
Opening and Modifying a BI Answers Request
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2. The Log In screen for Presentation Services appears. Enter Administrator as
the User ID and Password, and click Log In.
created using the sales history reports. Click the Answers link to go to the BI
Answers page.
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Opening and Modifying a BI Answers Request
In BI Answers, you can create a request from one of the subject areas listed on the
BI Answers page, or create a request (SQL query) directed to the database. You
can also open an existing request saved in folders. In this topic, you will open a
pre-created request from the shared folder, and modify it to add more measures or
fields.
1. On the BI Answers page, observe the highlighted options in the screenshot
below. Click the SH folder in the Shared Folders section (displayed to the left)
on the Catalog tabbed page.
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2. This displays all the pre-created requests in the SH folder. Click the Category
Sales for last 12 months link from the list of requests (displayed on the right).
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3. You can see that the request is shown on the BI Answers page, which displays
4. The request is displayed in the Edit mode, showing the Criteria tabbed page.
To add more fields to the request, expand the nodes SH> Measures> Sales
Facts and click Gross Profit to add this filed to the request.
Similarly, also add the Amount Sold field to the request. (These measures that
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you have added should be reflected in the Criteria tab as shown in the screen
below):
5. Click the Save Request icon (found on the top-right corner of the page) to
save the changes you have made to the request.
Enter the name of the request as "Category Sales and Profits for last 12
months" and click OK.
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Creating a BI Publisher Report Based on Oracle BI Answers Request and Viewing
Data
In this topic, you connect to BI Publisher from MS Word and save the BI Answers
request that you have modified in the previous topic as a BI Publisher report. You
will also open a simple RTF file, and add graphs and table in the report template.
You will also publish this template and view the data in the report.
Connecting to BI Publisher from MS Word to Save the Answers Request as BI
Publisher Report
Creating a Layout For the BI Publisher Report with Charts and Table
Publishing a Template for the BI Publisher Report
To create a BI Publisher report from the BI Answers request Category Sales and
Profits for last 12 Months, perform the following steps:
1. Start the MS Word application from the program menu.
Open the Category Sales and Profits.rtf file (which is provided with this OBE).
This is a simple rtf file with a header, footer, and a title as shown below:
(Observe that the Oracle BI Publisher menu displayed in MS Word)
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From the Oracle BI Publisher menu, select Log On.
Note: The Oracle BI Publisher menu is displayed in MS Word only when you
have successfully installed the Oracle BI Publisher Desktop as mentioned in
the step 6 of the Prerequisites section. Also, observe the BI Publisher tool bar
in MS Word, with the Data, Insert, Preview , Tools, and Help menus. Observe
the various options in these menus.
2. In the Login screen that appears, enter Administrator as the Username and
The first time when you connect, you will need to enter the report server URL.
Enter the following URL:
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http://oracle2go.us.oracle.com:9704/xmlpserver
Navigate to the shared>sh folder, and double click the Category Sales and
Profits for last 12 Months BI Answers request that you modified and saved
earlier.
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4. This displays the Save As Oracle BI Publisher Report window.
Navigate to the folder in which you want to save the report, and click Save.
(Here the report is saved in MyFolders>Learn folder. You will then return to the
rtf file in MS Word.)
Hint: You can create a folder in BI Publisher (Web UI) by clicking the Create a
New Folder link from the Folder and Report Tasks section.
Do not close the rtf file that is open in MS Word or do not log off from BI
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Publisher to continue with the next topic.
Creating a Layout with Charts and a Table For the BI Publisher Report
You have saved the Answers request as the BI Publisher Report in the previous
topic. In this topic you will create a template for the report by adding a bar chart, a
pie chart, and then a table to display the data. (Use the hints given in the Category
Sales and Profits.rtf file to insert the charts and the table in appropriate places).
Follow the steps listed below to create a template for the report:
1. In MS Word select Insert > Chart.
Note: When you save the Answer request as BI Publisher Report, its loads the
XML data definitions into the RTF template file so that you can define the layout
for the report data.
2. In the Chart window that appears, define the graph characteristics by following
1. Drag:
Sales Facts. Gross Profit to the Values field
Products. Prod Category to the Labels field (These are highlighted in the
screenshot below.)
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2. Ensure that Bar - Graph Vertical is selected as the graph Type, and select
April from the Style
drop-down list.
3. Type Profits by Category as the Title.
4. Click Preview to preview how the graph looks like, and click OK.
Resize the chart image in MS-Word to fit in the rtf file better.
The bar graph in the template file looks like this:
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3. Similarly, insert another Pie chart for showing the sales percentages by
category.
Follow the instructions listed steps below :
1. Drag:
Sales Facts. Amount Sold to the Values field
Products. Prod Category to the Labels field (These are highlighted in the
screenshot below.)
2. Select Pie Chart as the graph Type, and April as the Style.
3. Type Sales by Category as the Title.
4. Click Preview to preview how the graph looks like, and click OK.
Resize the chart image in MS-Word to fit in the rtf file better.
The pie chart in the template file looks like this: (Observe both the graphs):
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4. Now select Insert > Table Wizard to define a format for the table data in the
report.
5. This displays the Table Wizard. Select Table, and click Next.
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6. Ensure that ROWSET/ROW is selected as the Grouping Field, and click Next.
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8. Select Calendar. Calendar Month Desc from the Group By drop-down list,
select Calendar. Calendar Month Name from the Then By drop-down list to
group the data by calendar month. Accept the defaults for other options, and
click Next.
9. In this step you can select the sort orders for various fields.
Select Products. Prod Category from the Sort By drop-down list, accept the
defaults for other options, and then click Next.
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10. Edit the labels of the fields Products. Prod Category as Product Category,
Sales Facts. Amount Sold as Sales Revenue, Sales Facts. Gross Profit as
Profit.
Then click Finish to complete the creation of the table template.
The template file with the table you created looks like this:
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Important Note: The BI Publisher Desktop Template Builder has just created a
table for you. Notice the words and letters with the gray background. These are
called form fields. Form fields are Word objects that allow you to reference
other data (for example, a mail merge letter). BI Publisher uses form fields in
two ways:
• First is to reference data fields from the report definition (like YEAR and
MONTH).
• The second use is to embed instructions that control how the data fields will be
laid out (like G, F, and E).
If you are curious to know what these instructions are, double-click the form
field and view the Help text. It is important to treat these form fields carefully
and not accidentally delete or move them. Doing so will change the layout of
the table in your report. Also, you can add or modify your own form fields with
XSL commands to do more sophisticated things with the table layout.
11. Now, you can additionally use the formatting features in MS Word on this
template, such as changing the background and text colors, styles, adding an
auto layout for the table, aligning the number fields to the right, and so on.
Perform the following steps in MS Word:
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1. Select the Sales Revenue and Profit columns in the table and click the
Align Right icon in MS Word to align these fields to the right.
2. Select the Calendar. Calendar Month Desc, and Calendar. Calendar
Month Name headers (grouping fields) and apply the text color of dark
brown (or any other appropriate color of your choice), make it bold, and
also apply the Arial font in 12 pt.
3. Also, in the table, make all the column headers dark blue in color and
style them in bold. Make sure that the font is Arial 10 pt.
The table looks like this after the above format changes:
Note: You can also use the Auto Format feature in MS Word to define a format
for the table. To do this, select the table that you have added, and select Table
> Table Auto Format menu option in MS Word. Select an auto format for the
table from the list of available formats.
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12. Also, to add an appropriate number format to the Sales Revenue field, double-
13. This displays the Text Form Field Options for editing the formats.
Enter the Default Number as 99,999,999.99, and select the format that has a $
in the beginning as shown, and click OK.
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Now the table looks like this:
14. You can also add a form field to calculate the profit totals per month.
Note: Add this total below the table, with an appropriate label such as Total
Profit for the month of < Month name> is : <Profit Total>. Also align this entire
label to the right so that it appears below the Profit column of the table.
Click Insert> Field. (To insert the total in the place of the Profit Total in the
above label)
15. In the Field window that appears, define the characteristics by following the
1. Click Sales Facts. Gross Profit, and select Sum from the Calculation drop-
down list to add a total on this field.
2. Select On Grouping option to add the total by category. (All these are
highlighted in the screenshot below.)
3. Click Insert to insert this total in the template. Click Close.
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As this is also a number field, add an appropriate number format to it:
16. Also add another field in place of <Month name> in the label:
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4. Click Insert to insert this field. Click Close.
Now the table along with the fields added looks like this:
Add appropriate colors to the Month name and Profit total fields (also add new
lines where appropriate) so that the table looks like as shown below:
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Save the rtf file in MS Word. You can add your initials to the file when saving.
17. You can also preview how the data in the report looks like.
The charts and the data are shown in the screens below:
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Note: The header, footer, and other format changes you have defined in the
template are reflected. You can also view the data in other formats such as
HTML, RTF, and so on. Also, do not close the MS Word application or log out
from BI Publisher to continue with the next topic.
In the previous topic, you created a template for the BI Publisher report. In this
topic, you publish the template created to view the report data in BI Publisher.
You can directly publish a template from MS Word to BI Publisher for a report,
provided:
Perform the following steps to publish the template created from MS Word, and
then view data for the report in BI Publisher using this template: (Note that the
template you have created satisfies all the above criteria.)
1. In MS Word, select the Oracle BI Publisher > Publish Template As option.
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Note: If you have not saved the template in RTF format, it may prompt you to
save the template in RTF format first before publishing.
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Note: You can also view the data in the BI Publisher report using the template
published, by connecting to BI Publisher (Web) as the Administrator.
(Select All Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > BI Publisher from the
Start menu)
Navigate to My Folders > Learn, and click the View link below the Category
Sales and Profits for last 12 Months report to view the data.
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In this topic, you create a BI Dashboard page, and publish the BI Publisher report
that you created from the BI Answers request on BI Interactive Dashboard.
Perform the following steps:
1. Log in to Oracle BI Presentation Services as Administrator (password
Administrator).
(Hint: Refer to the first topic for logging in to Presentation Services.)
From the Page Options drop-down list (at the top-right corner of the page),
select Edit Dashboard.
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2. The Dashboard Editor page is displayed. Click the Add Dashboard Page icon
to add a page to the dashboard.
This displays the Add Dashboard Page screen. Enter My BI Publisher Page as
the Page Name, and optionally enter a suitable description. Click OK.
3. Drag BI Publisher Report from the Dashboard Objects list to the section on the
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You can see that the BI Publisher Report object is added to the dashboard,
click the Properties link on this object (highlighted in the screenshot).
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5. Select the Category Sales and Profits for last 12 Months report that you
In the Display Mode section of the report properties, select View the Latest
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Version option, accept defaults for other options, and then click OK.
7. This will take you back to the Dashboard Editor page, click Save to save the
Note that the dashboard now has the additional page that you created.
8. Click My BI Publisher Page tab to view the report that you published on this
page:
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Scroll down to see the graphs and the entire report data in PDF format:
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Creating a BI Publisher Report Using BI Server Subject Area and Viewing Data
In this topic, you will create a BI Publisher report from the BI Server Subject Area
(Metadata). You will also create an RTF template in MS Word, and associate it
with the report to view the data in BI Publisher.
Creating a BI Publisher Report from the BI Server Subject Area
Creating an RTF Template in MS Word by Logging In to BI Publisher
Publishing the Template to View the Report Data in BI Publisher
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1. Log in (if not logged in) to BI Publisher (Web) as Administrator (password
Administrator).
Note: You can log in to BI Publisher by logging in to Presentation Services and
selecting More Products > BI Publisher option, or you can also log in to BI
Publisher directly from:
All Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > BI Publisher option from the
Start menu.
Enter From BI Server as the name of the report, and click Create.
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3. The newly created report is displayed in the BI Publisher. Click the Edit link
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4. The report is displayed in edit mode.
Click Data Model and click New to define the data source for this report.
5. On the Data Set page that appears, select SQL Query from the Type drop-
down list.
6. On the Data Set page, select Cache Result. Ensure that Oracle BI EE is
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selected as the Data Source. (Observe the highlighted options in the
screenshot.)
Click Query Builder to create an SQL Query.
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Drag Channels to the Model canvas.
Similarly, drag Products and Sales Facts tables to the Model canvas.
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8. Select the following columns to be displayed in the query from the Model
objects (by selecting the check boxes beside the column names):
-Select Channel Desc from Channels.
-Select Prod Category and Prod Name from Products.
-Select Amount Sold from Sales Facts.
After the column selection, the Query Builder screen should look like this:
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9. Click the Conditions link.
In the Conditions screen, you can define the Aliases, Sorts, Group By fields,
Conditions, and so on.
Observe the options, and accept the defaults.
10. Click the Results link to see if the query results are displayed correctly without
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11. This will take you back to the BI Publisher Data Set page. Observe that the
query is displayed in the SQL Query field. Click the Save icon to save the
report.
Note: A simple SQL query is created here, but you can create more complex
queries by defining Sorts, Aliases, Conditions, Group By fields, and so on in the
Conditions screen of the Query Builder.
Also, you can view the data after creating and publishing the template for this
report. Now you can view only XML data for the report. (Click View to go to the
View mode and click View again, if you want to view the XML data for the
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report).
1. Start the MS Word application from the program menu. From the Oracle BI
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2. The Open Template window is displayed. Navigate and select the BI Publisher
report that you have created from BI Server metadata from the path: My
Folders > Learn > From BI Server, and click Open Report. (This will load the
data from the query.)
3. In the Word document, select Insert > Chart to define a graph format for the
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4. This opens the Chart window.
1. Drag:
Amount Sold to the Values field
Prod Category to the Labels field
Channel Desc to the Series field (See the highlighted options in the screenshot
below.)
2. Ensure that Bar Graph - Vertical is selected as the graph Type, and select
Autumn from the Style
drop-down list.
3. Enter Product Sales Revenues by Channel in the Title field.
4. Click Preview to preview how the graph looks like.
5. Click OK.
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5. The graph you defined for the SQL query data is displayed in the Word
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6. You can also add a table to represent the SQL query data.
7. Ensure that ROWSET/ROW is selected as the Grouping Field, and click Next.
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8. Click to include all the available fields in the table. (See the screenshot
below.)
Click Next.
9. Select Channel Desc from the Group By drop-down list; ensure that the Group
above option is selected for this field. Select Prod Category from the Then By
drop-down list, and select the Group left option for this field.
Click Next. (Observe the highlighted options in the screenshot.)
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10. Select Amount Sold from the Sort By drop-down list, select the Descending and
11. Edit the labels for the fields: Change Prod Name to Product Name and Amount
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The template that you have defined looks like this along with the table:
12. Make the appropriate format changes in MS Word to the table in the template:
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- Change Amount Sold field to a number field which is displayed in dollars ($).
The table in the template looks like the following: (See the table highlighted in
the screenshot.)
14. You can also preview how the template looks like with the data in MS Word by
selecting
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Oracle BI Publisher > Preview Template, and then selecting a format such as
PDF to view the data.
This helps you to preview, and make any further changes to the template
before it is published.
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Publishing the Template to View the Report Data in BI Publisher
Perform the following steps to publish the template created from MS Word for the
BI Publisher report created from BI Server subject area, and then view data for the
report in BI Publisher using this template:
1. In MS Word, select the Oracle BI Publisher > Publish Template As option.
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Note: If you have not saved the template in RTF format, it may prompt you to
save the template in RTF format first before publishing.
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3. ( If not already connected) Now connect to BI Publisher as Administrator.
(Select All Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > BI Publisher from the
Start menu).
Scroll down to see the table data (a portion of the data is shown below):
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You can also view the data in other formats such as PDF, RTF, MS Excel, and
so on.
Note: If you have time , and want to try more hands-on with BI Publisher,
continue with the next topic of creating a report with parameters and list of
values.
In this topic, you will create a report with parameters and list of values using the
From BI Server report you created in the previous topic.
Follow the steps listed below to create a report with parameters and list of values:
1. (If not logged in) Log in to BI publisher as Administrator, and navigate to My
Folders> Learn.
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2. This displays additional report actions in the Report and Folder Tasks.
Click Copy Report and then click Paste from Clipboard to paste it in the same
folder. (See the screens below):
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Rename this copied report as From BI Server with Parameters and
LOVs.
Note: You can directly modify the From BI Server report to add parameters and
LOVs too.
3. Now click the Edit link below the report to open the report in the Edit mode.
Click New Data Set1 found under the Data Model node in the Report
pane on the left to edit the SQL Query for the report. (Observe the
screen below):
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4. This displays the SQL Query for the report on the right.
Edit the query to add a bind variable chname in the query as below: (observe
the last line)
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5. Now click the Parameters node in the Report pane on the left and click New to
create a parameter.
6. This displays the Parameter screen on the right; define the following:
Enter chname as the name of the parameter, and select String as the Data
Type.
Enter Internet in the Default Value field, and select Text as the Parameter
Type.
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Also, type Enter a Channel Name: as the Display Label. (See the screen
below).
7. Click View to view the report data using the existingTemplate1 in html format .
Note that the report data and graph are displayed with the default parameter
value, that is for the Internet sales channel.
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8. You can enter the names of other channels to see the data.
For example, in the parameter field enter Partners as the channel name and
click View again to see the data and graph for this channel:
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9. Now click Edit to edit the report and define a List of Values to be used with this
parameter chname.
In the Report pane displayed on the left, click List of Values and click New to
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create a new list of values.
10. In the List of Values screen that appears on the right, ensure that Oracle BI EE
is selected as the Data Source, and click Query Builder to define a query for
defining a list of values.
11. In the Query Builder screen that displays the SH subject area on the left, click
Channels to add it to the Model canvas on the right, and select Channel Desc
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column (by selecting the check box beside it).
Click Save.
This takes you back to the List of Values screen again which displays the
query.
Click Save to save the changes to report:
12. Now click chname found under the Parameters node in the Report pane on the
left to edit it and associate it with the List of Values that you have created:
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13. In the Parameter screen that appears on the right, now select Menu as the
Parameter Type.
In the Menu Setting section that appears below the General Settings section,
enter Select a Channel Name: in the Display Label field, and ensure that the
New List of Values 1 (that you created) is selected from the List of Values drop-
down list.
Also, select Can Select All option to be able to see the data for all the
departments.
Click Save to save the report.
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14. Now click View to view the report using Template1 in HTML format.
Observe that the chname parameter is now displayed using the list of values
for the channels that you have defined:
Note: You can select any of the channels from the drop-down list to view the
data for that channel or select All to view the data for all channels.
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Summary
In this tutorial, you learned how to:
Create a BI Publisher report from BI Answers request
Create a BI Publisher report from BI Server Subject Area
Create RTF templates in MS Word by logging in to BI Publisher
Publish the templates for a BI Publisher report
View data in BI Publisher reports using the templates in various formats supported
Create a report with parameters and list of values
Related Information
To learn more about Oracle Business Intelligence, you can refer to:
Additional OBEs on BI EE on the OTN Web site.
Additional OBEs on BI Publisher on OTN Web site -
Coming soon.
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